Alternative plans made for airport

It's been a year since the Cuyahoga County Airport master plan was approved by Cuyahoga County commissioners, but that doesn't mean a runway extension is approved.

"The (Federal Aviation Administration) asked us to come up with an intermediate alternative that addresses runway safety area issues, so that's basically what we're doing right now," said County Airport Manager Kevin Delaney, who added the extension project, which now incorporates the intermediate alternative, is called "Plan 38" in the actual master plan.

The alternative includes upgrades to runway safety areas to ensure the airport is current with FAA standards, but it will not change the direction of the course the airport is pursuing, Delaney said.

"We continue to support and believe we have the justification for the extension of the ... runway," he said. "(But) just because (commissioners) approved the master plan, that doesn't mean they approved Plan 38. There's still a process that has to be followed."

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He said the project is not something that will happen anytime soon, but is part of long-term plan for the airport that will have a long process to go through before it's even started.

"You're still looking at 10, 15 years before we would even start constructing or extending the runway," he said.

The expansion would add 900 feet to the runway, bringing it to a total of 6,002 feet. It also would require that Richmond and Bishop roads be rerouted.

Opponents fear for increased air traffic as well as decreased safety, home values and standards of living.

Proponents have argued the extension would make the airport safer for pilots and noted that the plan wouldn't require any residential land to be acquired, though as many as 20 parcels of land and 44 acres still might be affected.

However, officials from the cities that would be affected, including Willoughby Hills, remain against the $31.2 million project.

"We've gone to the FAA several times that we opposed any and all expansion outside the footprint that's there today," said Willoughby Hills Mayor Robert Weger.

"It's clear that their demands are so overinflated. Today, they're not even meeting the flight takeoffs that they proposed from five years ago. And everything is contingent on financing."

Delaney said Weger is looking at the total number of operations, and while the airport authorities are looking at all of the operations, they are also focusing on the operations that identify or correlate with their corporate aircraft.

"That is how we have determined that our justification is for a 6,000-foot runway," he said, emphasizing once more the expansion is part of a long-term plan for the airport and, like any project, will have many deciding factors.

"In the future, we'll do additional forecasting as we move through the process," he said. "There's definitely a public involvement piece to this, an environmental assessment and a benefit cost analysis to determine if there's actually an added benefit."